Meditation Intensives

Intensives help create and cultivate sustainable meditation practices as well provide the opportunity to dive deeply into a topic.

If you are a beginner, intensives will guide you to dissolve your limitations in a safe and supportive environment and cultivate a regular stable home practice.

If you are a frequent meditator intensives will explore your boundaries, improve your understanding of a personal practice and deepen your strength through collective (Sangha) practice.﻿

HOW IS A SOLSTICE OR EQUINOX MORE BENEFICIAL?

These are magical times of the year and throughout the ages of mankind religions have gravitated toward these dates to hold major ceremonies, celebrations and sacred observations.

We are intrinsically tied to these cycles of nature whether we like to admit it or not, influenced by the stages of the moon with its ebb and flow of energy. The sun ' the life giver ' marks the days of death and decay back into regeneration and growth.

Winter Solstice is the shortest day and the longest night of the year. It marks the gradual return of the sun and signifies birth when new seeds of life will spring forth.

A good way to remember this special Solstice is, as the hours of daylight grow, so too, we can let our inner light of understanding, love and intuitions grow. Allowing both the dark and the light to resonate within us, for it is part of us and we can practice new beginnings of unity, compassion, empathy and global love.

The spring equinox marks equal hours of light and darkness, and in the northern hemisphere it is a time of moving toward growth in the natural world; an inspiration for accelerated growth in our lives.

As the equinox is a marking point, it is an opportunity for celebration of the spirit running through us all. ﻿ The power of the Sun is increasing, the days are lengthening and the nights are shortening. We begin to feel empowered to reach out for what we want and to take risks, strike out on our own, go for walks and connect to the Earth again.

The Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year (Northern Hemisphere). Symbolically, light and darkness represent soul and shadow, so now, with the Solstice, the light of the soul is shining its brightest over the darkness of the shadow. It is a portal opening of energy that overwhelms obstruction, blockages, and EGO.

The autumn equinox is the time of balance between day and night, and we can use the potential and fertility of this time to create opportunities for positive change in our lives and in the world. At this point we are poised between opposite forces, light and dark, receptive and active, unconscious and conscious, inner and outer. These can be united within us so that we are whole and balanced individuals. This gives birth to actions that come from the heart.﻿﻿

Living Your Yoga!

﻿WINTER SOLSTICE 2017﻿

TRAINING THE PUPPY

The liberating power of mindfulness﻿

SUNDAY DEC 17th,11-2pm

Meditation can be thought of as the art of awakening. Through the mastering of this art we can learn new ways to approach our difficulties and bring wisdom and joy alive in our life.

Through developing mindfulness tools and practices, we can awaken the best of our spiritual as well as human capacities. The key to this art is the steadiness of our attention. When the fullness of our attention is cultivated together with a grateful and tender heart, our life will naturally thrive in every way.

This meditation intensive will explore the Buddha’s teachings on mindfulness of breath and apply these teachings into meditation practices for home as well as tools for living life with a healing steady presence. Our task will be to train the puppy mind to become our lifelong friend.﻿

"Wherever you are, be ALL there." - Jim Elliot﻿

Early bird before Dec 8th $40After Dec 8th $50

﻿All Meditation intensives are held at Aparna’s home in downtown Albuquerque. To register please call 505-227-7765

SPRING EQUINOX

No Boundaries to the Sacred

Sunday March 18th

11am - 2pm

To fully integrate life and all parts of ourselves we must cease dividing our life into compartments ; periods of work,vacation,recreation etc. We have separated business life,love life and spiritual life from the time set aside for sports,exercises and enjoyment.

These patterns of fragmentation begin to define which parts of ourseves are good or worthy vs which parts of ourselves are not so good or unworthy.

This meditation intensive will share teachings from Buddhist psychology that aim to bring together all aspects of ourselves and our lives together into wholeness.

Wholeness is not achieved by cutting off a portion of one's being but by integration of the contraries.

- Carl Jung

Early bird before March 10th $40After March 10th $50

﻿All Meditation intensives are held at Aparna’s home in downtown Albuquerque. To register please call 505-227-7765

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SUMMER SOLSTICE

Codependence vs Fearless Compassion

Sunday June 17th

11am - 2pm

When our sense of self-worth is low we are not able to set limits, make boundaries or respect our own needs. Our seemingly compassionate assistance becomes mixed with dependence, fear and insecurity. Mature love and healthy compassion are not dependent but interdependent, born out of a deep respect for ourselves as well as others.

This solstice meditation intensive will share misunderstood ideals of compassion that can reinforce co-dependency and attachment patterns, teach how to recognize the difference between our actions that are compassionate vs actions that are dependent and how to honor our own limits and true capacity fearlessly.

Compassion must go hand in hand with wisdom otherwise it is not true compassion.

- Buddha

Early bird before June 9th $40After June 9th $50

﻿All Meditation intensives are held at Aparna’s home in downtown Albuquerque. To register please call 505-227-7765

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FALL EQUINOX 2018

THE HEART SUTRA

7 DAY Vipassana MEDITATION RETREAT

at the Bodhi Manda Zen Center

Sept 20th - 26th

The Heart Sutra expresses the Buddha's most profound teaching, the not two-ness of all things. Because we habitually cut ourselves off from the rest of existence, we resist any idea that we lack a separate self. In the Heart Sutra the Buddha tells us that all is 'shunyata', generally translated as emptiness. This emptiness is in fact fullness with all things. ﻿ In this 7 day Vipassana Retreat Aparna will share the teachings of 'The Heart Sutra' (in Sanskrit, Prajnaparamita Hrdaya Sutra), possibly the best known text of Mahayana Buddhism, and said to be the pure distillation of wisdom (prajna)﻿. Penetrate the true meaning of the Heart Sutra, says Karl Brunnhölzl, and nothing will be the same again.﻿

"One moment can change a day,one day can change a life and one life can change the world.﻿"- Buddha﻿

Spiritual practice can easily start to become idealistic and romatic. It can also be misused to try to escape ordinary life or ourselves and to find existance on an exalted,light filled plane.

What is true and genuine spiritual maturity? What are its intrinsic qualities? What are its cycles and seasons? Is it possible to live in the world and be true to all parts of ourselves while simultaneously manifesting the highest spiritual ideals?

This solstice intenisve will bring to light teachings from Buddhist psychology that guide a kind of spirituality that is filled with joy & integrity, and is both ordinary and awakened.

If you seek peace, be still.

If you seek wisdom, be silent.

If you seek love, be yourself.

- Becca Lee

Early bird before 12th $40After Dec 12th $50

﻿All Meditation intensives are held at Aparna’s home in downtown Albuquerque. To register please call 505-227-7765